NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
23 September 2019
Share on Twitter
Tweets by @NWrail1
Contributions and comments are encouraged: see the Contributions Page
Tuesday 1 October North
Wales Railway Circle NWRC Secretary Peter
Hanahoe. Photos from 2009.
Wednesday 2 October RCTS Liverpool "To Hell And Back " Bevan Price. Bevan, a Branch member for 60 years, presents his photographs during his 50 years of rail travel throughout Britain and Europe.
Saturday 5 October Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Bob Gwynne, Associate Curator, National Railway Museum ‘Snow White to Stephenson’. This is a story about the search for strategic minerals, climate change, religious conflict, immigration, integration and innovation. Overall a very modern story, although this one starts over 400 years ago and from it emerges the technology we call railways.
height: 2px;">Thursday 10
October Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society End
of the Lines: A tour of railway terminals. John
Cornishaw
Saturday 12 October Steam at
Chester. Vintage
Trains 'Cheshire Venturer'
Dorridge - Chester.
Saturday 12 October UK
Railtours The Snowdon
Panorama (diesel) London - Llandudno Junction
Monday 21 October RCTS
Chester "South Wales
Railways since the 1970s " Stuart Warr. Stuart from
Cardiff will look back at the changing face of
railways across South Wales since 1973, featuring
steam and diesels working all manner of services with
a few rare views.
Saturday 2 November Stephenson
Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Geoff Stocker
‘Rebuilding the Welsh Highland
Railway’ An illustrated presentation of the stage-wise
re-construction of the WHR (closed 1936) on the
abandoned trackbed, from 1995 to completion in 2010
& subsequent developments - including locos and
rolling stock.
Tuesday 5 November height: 2px;">North Wales Railway Circle Dave Rapson. A digital presentation of all sorts.
height: 2px;"> height: 2px;"> height: 2px;">Friday 8 November Steam on the Coast Railway Touring Company North Wales Coast Express London - Holyhead, Flying Scotsman Crewe - Holyhead - Crewe
height: 2px;">height: 2px;"> height: 2px;">Thursday 14 November Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Railway Signalling Gareth Parry
height: 2px;">Monday 18 November RCTS
Chester "Railway Safety"
David Maidment. David Maidment will discuss the change
in railway safety management systems and safety
culture from his experience in South Wales in the
1960s, as Regional Operating Manager of the LMR in the
1980s. Also as Head of Safety Policy at the BR
Headquarters in the 1990s
Wednesday 4 December RCTS Liverpool "Liverpool And Its Railways " John Ryan. A look at the varied railways of Liverpool and its surrounding over many decades by former British Rail civil engineer.
Saturday 7 December Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. At Sale United Reformed Church lounge, Montague Road, Sale M33 3BU Including seasonal refreshments!
Owen Russell ‘Memories of the Woodhead Line’ The Woodhead line linked Lancashire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and London. As there were shorter routes to London, express trains often comprised only 5 or 6 coaches. The line was a good place to see a variety of GC and, later, LNER engines, which had to work hard on the notorious gradients. Like many steam routes, Woodhead was a line of contrasts.
Thursday 12 December Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society A railway pictorial of steam Barry Wynne (Special Christmas meeting with quiz)
Saturday 14 December Steam at Chester UK Railtours 'The Christmas Chester Chuffer' London - Chester. Steam Bescot - Chester - Crewe.
Monday 16 December RCTS Chester "1960s Southern Branch Lines" David Miller. A 1960s archive of black and white photographs mainly of Southern branches but also from further north, with some interesting diversions. Images never seen before.
Thursday 19 December Steam at Chester Railway Touring Company 'The Chester Christmas Express' Stevenage - Chester. Loco 6233.
height: 2px;">
height: 2px;">Tuesday 7 January North Wales Railway Circle NWRC committee member and Coast Railway website contributor Peter Basterfield. Home & Away.
Monday 20 January RCTS Chester AGM followed by "The Ffestiniog Railway" Geoff Coward. After 20.15 hrs Geoff will take a look at the steam loco’s of the Ffestiniog Railway, past present and future. Then a trip along the line from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog, looking at each station, maintenance facility and scenery
Saturday 25 January Stephenson
Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre.
Centre AGM (brief) followed by: Christian
Wyatt ‘21st Century signalling Control Centre
– The Manchester Rail Operations Centre’
Christian Wyatt, a career railwayman with 38
years’ service, started as a signal box lad at
Manchester Victoria and is now Project
Operations Interface Manager for the London
North Western route. One of his key
responsibilities is the development of the
Manchester Rail Operations Centre. Christian
will describe the MROC from its build in 2012
to its present operational status.
height: 2px;">Tuesday 4 February North Wales Railway Circle Robin Humphrey-Davies ('Humph'). The route of the Welsh Highland Railway, Part 2, Rhyd Ddu to Porthmadog.
Wednesday 5 February
RCTS
Liverpool "The Black & White
Collection Of Bill Ashcroft " John Sloane.
Bill Ashcroft was a well-known name in
Lancashire steam railway circles and John
Sloane from Wigan will present some of his
large collection of monochrome pictures
from the steam era.
Thursday 13
February Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society
Llangollen
Railway Dave
Southern
>Monday 17
February RCTS
Chester "The Unknown Warrior –
The Patriot Rebuild" John
Hastings-Thomson. The LMS Patriot
project are rebuilding a Patriot, ‘The
Unknown Warrior’ and this
presentation will describe the huge
amount of work and money involved to
build a new steam locomotive.
Saturday 22
February Stephenson
Locomotive Society. Manchester
Centre. Tony Wright
‘Aspects of the Origins &
Development of Monorails including
Behr, Lartigue and the Manchester to
Liverpool Lightning Express Railway’
You may remember Tony’s excellent
presentation on Mayfield Station.
Don’t miss this intriguing meeting.
height: 2px;">
Tuesday, 25
February 18:30 Stephenson
Locomotive Society. Manchester
Centre. Joint meeting with
the Newcomen Society, Location
to be confirmed. Bob Gwynne,
Associate Curator, National
Railway Museum ‘Sticking with
steam – an examination of why
Britain’s railways stuck with
steam into the space age’ This
talk examines some of the complex
history behind moving on from the
steam age on Britain’s railways
and attempts an answer as to why
the UK’s love affair with the
steam hasn’t ended.
Thursday 12
March Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway
Society plan to
have a visit from a
representative from
Transport for Wales. More
details later
Tuesday 3 March North Wales Railway Circle Barry Wynne and Steve Morris. Another show from Barry's superb collection.
Monday 16 March RCTS Chester "The Lever Brothers Railways Of Port Sunlight" Mike Lister Telling the story of Levers’ railways. The soap factory was constructed in 1888 and its railways covered 54 track miles and the talk will describe the railway within the soap factory and other factories at Bromborough.
Saturday
21 March Stephenson
Locomotive Society.
Manchester Centre.
Melvyn Roberts
‘Indian
Summer of the Somerset &
Dorset Railway’ The S &
D was (and still is) many
enthusiasts’ favourite
cross-country railway. We
will hear about its unusual
history, but the main
feature will be a slide show
of its operations in the
1950’s and 1960’s.
Wednesday 1 April RCTS Liverpool "L&Y Engines At Work" Paul Shackcloth. Paul Shackcloth is the photographic historian for the Manchester Locomotive Society who have a large collection. This talk will show Lanky locomotives at work over the whole of the ex-L&Y network, including Liverpool Exchange.
height: 2px;">
height: 2px;">Thursday 9 April height: 2px;"> Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Trams in Llandudno (Including L & CBER and Great Orme Tramway) John Davies
height: 2px;">Saturday 18 April Stephenson
Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre.
Tim Owen ‘The activities of the Furness
Railway Trust’ The Furness Railway Trust has
a collection of six steam locomotives,
including Furness Railway No. 20, plus
historic carriages. The illustrated talk
will cover the work of the Trust over the
past 30 years..
May 2020
Tuesday 12 May height: 2px;">North Wales Railway Circle AGM and Photo Competition.
Thursday 14 May Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Evening Train Trip to Betws-y-Coed, where we will spend an hour in the Gwydyr. (Times will be confirmed later)
The last Wylfa flask train makes its way to Valley past Penmaenmawr on 19 August. Picture by Peter Basterfield.
We are on our travels again - next update will be on Tuesday 1 October. - Charlie
Last week of the flasks
The nuclear flask trains taking away the fuel elements from the closed Wylfa power station have ceased to tun, their task completed. The penultimate train, on 16 September, was entrusted to a pair of Class 88 electro-diesels, 88 002 Prometheus and 88 009 Diana., photographed by Tim Rogers approaching Mostyn.
The last westbound train, captured by Ian Wilson near Rhyl.
Near Penmaenmawr (Peter Basterfield).
At Wylfa, the staff gathered in front of the last flask on its road transporter. Not all the staff will be made redundant at this stage, there is more work to be done. Picture courtesy of Magnox Ltd.
The last train heads east at Llandudno Junction (Andrew Bridle). The driver gave a solemn wave as the train passed.
Tim Rogers photographed the train near Abergele. Wylfa was the largest and last Magnox site to be built in the UK, operating from 1972 until 2015 and generating 232 Terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity – enough to power 1.1 million homes per year for 44 years. The 87,890 fuel elements, which measure 43 inches in length, would stretch for 17½ miles if placed end to end.
More about Wylfa and Magnox on the Magnox and BBC websites.
Some adventures of 67 010
67 010 has been on the Manchester loco-haled turn for some weeks now: Above, it is passing over the River Mersey in Walton, Warrington with 1D31 16:50 Manchester Piccadilly to Llandudno on 16 September. Picture by Peter Laithwaite.
The 09:53 Manchester - Holyhead among the trees near Shotton on 17 September (Tim Rogers).
Tim Rogers was up early on 18 September to photograph 67 010 leading 1D51 07:11 Crewe to Chester.
Abergele, 18 September (Tim Rogers).
The 13:07 Holyhead to Manchester Piccadilly passes Deansgate station and the latest skyscraper on 19 September, our wide-angle lens giving the building a threatening look ...
... and a little further on, amid buildings of different styles.
Llangollen diesel weekend approaches
The weekend of 28-29 September sees the Llangollen Railway's Diesel Weekend (see the Llangollen Diesels website, and as is the custom, there will be a guest loco in action, this time Derby/Sulzer loco D7535 (25 185). Martin Evans was waiting for a bus in Trevor on 19 September when the Class 25 passed by on its heavy-duty road trailer.
D7535 was built at Derby Works in 1965, one of the later examples with a tidied-up front and no train-heating facility. It worked from a variety of London Midland Region depots, before being withdrawn at Crewe depot in 1984. In 1982 it made some appearances on the Cambrian line's London trains, according to the excellent Derbysulzers website. It is currently based at the South Devon Railway.
Twenty minutes later, preparing to back into the Llangollen yard. Moving locos around the country is an expensive operation; we understand that the cost of the movement was raised by members of the Llangollen Diesels group in association with an online appeal for contributions.
Steam scenes - by Peter Neve
Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 No. 45231 approaches Broad Oak crossing on an empty coach test run from Coton Hill to Crewe on Tuesday 17 September (with Class 37 diesel on the rear).
Threading its train through the encroaching vegetation, 45231 storms Gresford Bank with a Crewe to Coton Hill test run on 18 September. The sound from the exhaust was awesome.
Corwen Central progress - report by George Jones
Work on the Llangollen Railway's Corwen project made significant progress on 16 September, with a series of four engineering movements on the extension west of Carrog to bring supplies of ballast in from the mound at Bonwm. The Class 08 shunter 13265 (08 195) is seen propelling two loaded 'Mermaid' side-tipping wagons through the site of the former Dwyrain Corwen East platform onto the extended railhead ...
... to drop the stone on the trackside.
Once off-loaded, the gang of volunteers was busy preparing the stone for ...
... movement by JCB on to the site of the infilled gap as they need to raise the level of the line to connect through to the site of the crossovers at the link into the platform loop. This on-going effort is manpower-hungry.
Continued working of the ballast across the site of the former gap provided the base for the opportunity to set out the pointwork. As of Saturday 21 September, all the earlier planning and drawings for the set of points into the platform loop was translated into ground work. Volunteers were able to set out the crossover assembly for the right-hand point on the main line, aligned to the railhead further east and the Down side loop. It was essential to get this right if the rest of the point work is to follow in good order.
The completion of the point and its partner to the up loop and siding, will be a further challenge for the project members during the coming month. The picture above shows the length for the siding, on the right in front of the container.
The past summer has seen work concentrated on the platform area, now that the infill between the two walls is complete.
At the subway entrance four of the restored columns, which formerly supported the canopy at Blackfriars station in London, are in situ, and the access to and from the station waiting room/booking office is now ramped and fenced.
Inside the stairwell a chairlift has been provided for wheelchair users.
The new facility for the mobility-impaired was commissioned when project treasurer Paul Bailey rode the lift on 3 August. Picture by Wayne Ronneback.
Seen on a trip to Doncaster - by Martin Evans
GBRf 66 762 brings the Tees Port to Doncaster Iport intermodal service through Doncaster station on 17 September.
On the other side of the Pennines - Freightliner 70 006 powers the Trafford Park to Southampton Docks service through Platform 13 at Manchester Piccadilly.
New Northern EMU 331 104 waits at Doncaster for its next outing, while being used for training staff on the units.
Mid-Cheshire scenes - pictures by Greg Mape
On 6 September, the 13:30 Runcorn Folly Lane - Northenden waste terminal has arrived at Northenden Junction, and sets back over the crossover before drawing forward into the terminal
In the terminal sidings the loco runs round the train and waits while the containers are unloaded and full ones loaded, departing for Runcorn at 19:10.
Navigation Road station can be a busy place, as this sequence from the afternoon of 20 September illustrates. Above, at 16:08, 2H39 15:02 worked by 150 121 (missing its Northern branding) on Chester - Manchester Piccadilly calls.
16:12: 150 102 calls on 2D77 15:41 Manchester Piccadilly - Chester, as Metrolink 3003 departs for Bury. The station has separate single-line sections though the station, and working is further complicated by a level crossing at the platform end which sees two Northern trains and t5en trams each hour as well as freights. A recent timetable change, which has trains arriving at the single-line section just few minutes apart, seems certain to cause delays.
16:18: Freightliner 66 607 on the 10:00 Hardendale Quarry to Guide Bridge (railway ballast?) , and Metrolink 3049. There are 147 trams in the Metrolink fleet at present, but only 3001 to 3060 retain the dual signalling system necessary to travel the Network Rail-controlled section from Timperley to Altrincham.
16:22: 60 007 The Spirit of Tom Kendell passes with the 14:18 Peak Forest Cemex Sidings to Dallam Freight Depot, Warrington limestone train, formed of MMA bogie box wagons, made in Romania, and delivered from 2016 onwards.
New GBRf intermodal service
GBRf have started an new service of container trains between Trafford Park and Southampton to add to their long-standing Felixstowe service.: 4O23 03:11 southbound, and 4M52 14:23 from Southampton (arriving Trafford Park 23:27). Not easy to photograph in our area, but GBRf driver Jim Scott has sent us these excellent images. Above, Basford Hall sidings at 21:19 on 18 September.
Manchester Oxford Road at 22:43.
Trafford Park at 23:48.
North Wales Coast home page | Archive | Previous Notice Board